North Carolina Central University

Overview

North Carolina Central University is a public historically Black university in Durham, North Carolina, founded by James E. Shepard in 1909 in affiliation with the Chautauqua educational movement, as the National Religious Training School and Chautauqua for the Colored Race in Durham’s Hayti District, supported by private funds from both Northern and Southern philanthropists — including, in its early years, future U.S. president Woodrow Wilson. Chartered as a private institution in 1909, it opened on July 5, 1910, was sold and reorganized as the National Training School in 1915, and became part of North Carolina’s state system in 1923, when it first received state funding as the Durham State Normal School. In 1969 the state legislature designated it a regional university and renamed it North Carolina Central University; it has been part of the University of North Carolina system since 1972.

The Nation’s First State-Supported Liberal Arts College for Black Students

After financial trouble, James E. Shepard’s school was sold and reorganized in 1915 as the National Training School, with support from New York philanthropist Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage. It became a state-funded institution in 1923 as the Durham State Normal School, and in 1925 the General Assembly converted it into the North Carolina College for Negroes — the nation’s first state-supported liberal arts college for Black students, dedicated to preparing teachers and principals. To avoid North Carolina’s Jim Crow train-car segregation, Shepard insisted on driving to Raleigh himself to lobby the legislature for the change.